Transport in Antarctica has transformed from explorers crossing the isolated remote area of Antarctica by foot to a more open era due to human technologies enabling more convenient and faster transport, predominantly by air and water, but also by land as well. Transportation technologies on a remote area like Antarctica need to be able to deal with extremely low temperatures and continuous winds to ensure the travelers' safety. Due to the fragility of the Antarctic environment, only a limited amount of transport movements can take place and sustainable transportation technologies have to be used to reduce the ecological footprint. The infrastructure of land, water and air transport needs to be safe and sustainable. Currently thousands of tourists and hundreds of scientists a year depend on the Antarctic transportation system.
The history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe. The term Antarctic, referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle, was coined by Marinus of Tyre in the 2nd century AD.
The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE) of 1955–1958 was a Commonwealth-sponsored expedition that successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole. It was the first expedition to reach the South Pole overland for 46 years, preceded only by Amundsen's expedition and Scott's expedition in 1911 and 1912.
The United States Antarctic Program is an organization of the United States government which has a presence in the Antarctica continent. Founded in 1959, the USAP manages all U.S. scientific research and related logistics in Antarctica as well as aboard ships in the Southern Ocean.
Winston Wen-Yang Wong OBE is the eldest son of Wang Yung-ching, chair of the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG), by his second wife. Wong is now a widower with a son and a daughter after his wife died of stomach cancer in 2007. Wong holds degrees in physics, applied optics, and chemical engineering from Imperial College London. His English name was chosen during his study in the United Kingdom.
Will Steger is a prominent spokesperson for the understanding and preservation of the Arctic and has led some of the most significant feats in the field of dogsled expeditions; such as the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole in 1986, the 1,600-mile south–north traverse of Greenland - the longest unsupported dogsled expedition in history at that time in 1988, the historic 3,471-mile International Trans-Antarctic Expedition - the first dogsled traverse of Antarctica (1989–90), and the International Arctic Project - the first and only dogsled traverse of the Arctic Ocean from Russia to Ellesmere Island in Canada during 1995.
Sir Walter William Herbert was a British polar explorer, writer and artist. In 1969 he became the first man fully recognized for walking to the North Pole, on the 60th anniversary of Robert Peary's disputed expedition. He was described by Sir Ranulph Fiennes as "the greatest polar explorer of our time".
The South Pole Traverse, also called the South Pole Overland Traverse, is an approximately 995-mile-long (1,601 km) flagged route over compacted snow and ice in Antarctica that links McMurdo Station on the coast to the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, both operated by the National Science Foundation of the United States. It was constructed by levelling snow and filling in crevasses; flags mark its route from McMurdo Station across the Ross Ice Shelf to the Leverett Glacier, where the route ascends to the polar plateau and on to the South Pole.
Paul Landry M.B. is a French-Canadian polar explorer, author, and adventurer who is the only paid man to ever reach three Geographical poles in a single year.
Andrew Regan is a British-born polar explorer and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer of Corvus Capital, an investment company.
Robert Charles Swan, OBE, FRGS is the first person to walk to both poles.
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipodally on the opposite side of Earth from the North Pole, at a distance of 20,004 km in all directions. It is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface.
The Concept Ice Vehicle or CIV was a bio-fuelled, propeller-powered vehicle that was developed for the Andrew Regan / Andrew Moon bid to cross the Antarctic in 2009. The Expedition was rescheduled to November 2010 and the Ice Vehicle was re-engineered and renamed the Winston Wong Bio-Inspired Ice Vehicle BIV. Professor Winston Wong is the sponsor of the Moon Regan Transantarctic Expedition 2010. The Expedition has several key objectives: to show that the right motorised vehicles can operate successfully and efficiently in the Antarctic, to successfully complete a transantarctic crossing and to help researchers at Imperial College London gather useful data on vehicle emissions, the performance of biofuels and human performance under extreme conditions. Few ground vehicles have, to date, been successful there; researchers who work across the continent tend to rely on air travel, which may be more environmentally damaging.
Jason De Carteret, born on the British island of Guernsey, is a polar explorer. He took part in the Ice Challenger Expedition and holds skiing and vehicle world records for polar exploration. He has worked as a commercial helicopter pilot.
1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition was a 6,021-kilometre (3,741-mile), 220-day expedition and the first-ever non-mechanized crossing of Antarctica. The six-member, international team was co-led by U.S. team member, Will Steger and French team member, Dr. Jean-Louis Étienne. The other team members were Victor Boyarsky, Geoff Somers, Qin Dahe (China) and Keizo Funatsu (Japan). The expedition was operated in partnership with the Soviet Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute through a joint venture. Primary expedition sponsors were W. L. Gore and Associates and Union d'Assurances de Paris (UAP).
Vernon "Vern" Tejas is an American mountain climber and mountain guide. He is the current world record holder in the amount of time taken to summit all of the Seven Summits consecutively, having also previously held the same record. He was also the first person to solo summit several of the world's tallest peaks. Tejas was named one of the top fifty Alaskan athletes of the twentieth century by Sports Illustrated in 2002. In 2012, he was elected to the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame. Tejas plays the harmonica and guitar. He currently resides in Greenwich Village, New York.
Ramón Hernando de Larramendi is a Spanish polar explorer and adventure traveler who has promoted and developed a WindSled unique in the world, intended for the research in Antarctica and Greenland. He has traveled more than 40,000 km in polar territories.
Geoffrey Usher Somers is a British explorer, particularly of the polar regions. He was the first Briton to cross Antarctica on foot, and has an Antarctic peak named in his honour, Somers Nunatak. In 1992 he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to outdoor education and polar exploration, and in 1996 the Polar Medal for his contributions to polar exploration.
